Kevin “Greek God of Walks” Youkilis is neck and neck with Mark “Greek God of Selling Your Useless Soul to the Evil Empire” Teixeira; trailing by a scant few hundred votes in the latest polling:
Mark Teixeira Yankees 833,960
Kevin Youkilis Red Sox 832,751
Dustin “AL MVP” Pedrioa is also in a squeeker with Ian “WHO?” Kinsler. Ian Kinsler? Seriously, this guy really exists? Is this some Karl Rove revenge thing?
Ian Kinsler Rangers 1,173,494
Dustin Pedroia Red Sox 923,416
Voting is with a Boston ballot (you can vote often, as often as your fingers can click keys). GOTV!
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But I’d rather see Kinsler play. I mean, it’d be nice to have home field advantage in the World Series, and he’s just been better than Pedroia this year.
it’s certainly not with the glove, that’s for sure.
His fielding stats are either almost equal to or better than pedroia and his batting is far superior this season.
Ian’s fielding stats this year are better than his traditional fielding stats. Does that mean he’s suddenly become a better fielder, though? Or does it just mean he’s been relatively lucky thus far, this year — or that the differences in fielding abilities just hasn’t showed up in the stats? Suffice it to say, ask anyone in the league who they’d rather have fielding, no other factors considered, and I’m pretty sure Dustin would be the unanimous choice.
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p>Furthermore, I don’t think the batting is hugely different. Pedroia’s slugging is a bit off this year, and he’s been having a mini slump as of late, but even despite that slump, his OBP is still 40 pts higher on the season. Would I rather have the extra power rather than the bump in OBP? Sure, but I wouldn’t rather have Kinsler on my team. He’s a great player and an amazing force to have on a fantasy team, but what’s he ever won? It may be cliched to say this, but Pedroia brings a lot of intangibles and he’s the type of player who you can never count out, no matter the situation. They’ll both probably make the all star team this year — and they both deserve to be there. Maybe Kinsler should start, especially if he’s never done so before. But let’s not pretend that just because he has a little more bop and is (so far) doing statistically better year in the field than usual (but still not statistically good as D.P.), that he’s actually better than the Reigning MVP and former Rookie of the Year.
no link! Where do we vote?
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/…
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p>”Vote up to 25 times!”
Current headline at the mlb all star page:
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p>Youkilis moves up in All-Star balloting
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p>(Also, Youk isn’t Greek… And Terry Francona said : “I’ve seen Youkilis in the shower and I wouldn’t call him the Greek god of anything..” )
Greek God of Walks came from the book Moneyball, quoting Oakland GM Billy Bean while trying to steal Youk from the Sox in a trade. Don’t think Youk likes it, but it’s a nickname he’s probably stuck with.
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p>Far as I’m concerned Youk can be the god of whatever he wants to be.
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p>Keep votin’